I have had my beady eye on this coat for absolutely ages but I chickened out of sewing it because a coat! Too hard surely? I made the “raw-edged coat” pattern from The Essential Collection by The Maker’s Atelier. Except I didn’t want raw edges. So just the “coat” then. Sounds less impressive now. Anyway here is one by The Maker’s Atelier so you can see what its supposed to look like. Nice eh?

I sewed the version with finished edges because I was using a heavy cotton twill which frays and I wanted to look like a school caretaker. Thats normal right? The fabric is a marvellously purply indigo twill from Merchant and Mills, its soft and yummy whilst being heavy and important.

My skills and confidence are improving thanks to a City & Guilds Fashion & Dressmaking course that I started last month. We are sewing up a gazillion samples, this is marvellously confidence-boosting for a person formerly too scared to make a coat. Welt seam here! Fell seam there! I bias bound the seams INSIDE THE SLEEVES with BIAS I MADE MYSELF. Who am I?!

The pattern pieces are cut beautifully and go together very nicely. The instructions are perfectly fine.

Technical thoughts

The collar nearly broke me. There are blood stains on my book because I kept stabbing myself with pins pinning and re-pinning. I hand-basted it, which I highly recommend when sewing lots of layers like this. It also meant I didn’t overwork the fabric putting the collar in and taking it out again many many times.

Then I got it in and it looks wonderful and the stress and the pain in my pin-stabbed fingers dissolved and there was happy dancing.

Even though the pattern is for a raw-edged coat with no facings and so forth the book helpfully provides instructions for creating facings, and for constructing a finished edge coat. One does need to stay on ones toes and read instructions for both versions as it didn’t spell out when to sew sew the shoulder seams together, and the side seams/sleeves.

I sewed 1cm seam allowances as per the instructions for the raw-edged coat, which doesn’t require seam finishing. If I make this again I will add 0.5cm so I can make 1.5 seam allowances, which will make it easier for me to finish my seams neatly. I found it a bit fiddly working with heavy twill fabric and 1cm seam allowances.

Conclusion

I love my coat. The pockets are nice and big for my phone and biscuits. It has plenty room for jumpers, and it is best friends with my leopard print bag. What’s not to love?